Low Self-Esteem as a Risk Factor for Eating Disorders: A Meta-Analysis
Abstract
Eating disorders are a major health concern and the identification of relevant risk factors is crucial for prevention. This meta-analysis aims to give insight into the relevance of low self-esteem in the development of pathological eating. Longitudinal and partial correlations were synthesized in a random-effects multilevel model. In total, 25 effect sizes were obtained from 13 primary studies. These mainly included females from late childhood to young adulthood. The results reveal a practically relevant effect of self-esteem on eating disorders ( r = −.23, ρ = −.09). This effect was significantly larger for females and for shorter time periods between measurements. Additionally, self-esteem and eating disorders are both temporally stable. It is concluded that low self-esteem acts as a universal risk factor for different eating disorders. Limitations are due to the reliance on bivariate correlations and a small number of effect sizes. The necessity of more high-quality research in this field is discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Self-esteem improvement is one of the challenges in eating-disorder treatment.
“this is relevant as self-esteem improvement is one of the challenges in eating-disorder treatment [57].”
From Effects of dog-assisted therapy in adolescents with eating disorders: A study protocol for a pilot controlled trial (2021) · cites this paper as [57]
Cites
Sufficient Sample Sizes for Multilevel Modeling
Maas, C. J. M., & Hox, J. J. (2005) · Methodology · doi:10.1027/1614-2241.1.3.86 · Cited by 3,582 · see citing works
An effect size primer: A guide for clinicians and researchers.
Ferguson, C. J. (2009) · Professional Psychology: Research and Practice · doi:10.1037/a0015808 · Cited by 3,467 · see citing works
Arcelus, J., Mitchell, A. J., Wales, J., & Nielsen, S. (2011) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.74 · Cited by 2,864 · see citing works
Does low self-esteem predict depression and anxiety? A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
Sowislo, J. F., & Orth, U. (2013) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0028931 · Cited by 2,123 · see citing works
Development and validation of a scale for measuring state self-esteem.
Heatherton, T. F., & Polivy, J. (1991) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.60.6.895 · Cited by 2,007 · see citing works
Fitting three-level meta-analytic models in R: A step-by-step tutorial
Assink, M., & Wibbelink, C. J. M. (2016) · The Quantitative Methods for Psychology · doi:10.20982/tqmp.12.3.p154 · Cited by 1,330 · see citing works
THEORY TESTING: COMBINING PSYCHOMETRIC META‐ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL EQUATIONS MODELING
VISWESVARAN, C., & ONES, D. S. (1995) · Personnel Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01784.x · Cited by 926 · see citing works
A Meta-Analytic Review of Eating Disorder Prevention Programs: Encouraging Findings
Stice, E., Shaw, H., & Marti, C. N. (2007) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091447 · Cited by 544 · see citing works
Stice, E., Marti, C. N., Shaw, H., & Jaconis, M. (2009) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0016481 · Cited by 529 · see citing works
Eating disorder prevention programs: A meta-analytic review.
Stice, E., & Shaw, H. (2004) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.206 · Cited by 510 · see citing works
Perfectionism, Dysfunctional Attitudes, and Self‐Esteem: A Structural Equations Analysis
Ashby, J. S., & Rice, K. G. (2002) · Journal of Counseling & Development · doi:10.1002/j.1556-6678.2002.tb00183.x · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Yean, C., Benau, E. M., Dakanalis, A., Hormes, J. M., Perone, J., & Timko, C. A. (2013) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00887 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Self-Esteem in Adults With ADHD Using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: A Systematic Review
Pedersen, A. B., Edvardsen, B. V., Messina, S. M., Volden, M. R., Weyandt, L. L., & Lundervold, A. J. (2024) · Journal of Attention Disorders · doi:10.1177/10870547241237245 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Low self esteem is also associated with various psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, premorbid psychosis, border line and avoidant personality disorders, and eating disor ders (Bemrose et al., 2021; Colmsee et al., 2021; Lynum et al., 2008; Šare et al., 2021; Sowislo & Orth, 2013).”
BackgroundThe associations between social comparison on social media and young adults’ mental health
Le Blanc-Brillon, J., Fortin, J.-S., Lafrance, L., & Hétu, S. (2025) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1597241 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Use of Social Media, Satisfaction with Body Image, and the Risk of Manifesting Eating Disorders
Arjona, Á., Monserrat, M., & Checa, J. C. (2024) · Social Sciences · doi:10.3390/socsci13020105 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Lavín-Pérez, A. M., Martín-Sánchez, C., Martínez-Núñez, B., Lobato-Rincón, L. L., Villafaina, S., González-García, I., Mata-Cantero, A., Graell, M., Merellano-Navarro, E., & Collado-Mateo, D. (2021) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani11102784 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
“Although the exact mechanisms behind self-esteem improvement after AAT are unknown [15], this is relevant as self-esteem improvement is one of the challenges in eating-disorder treatment [57].”
Background
- Authors
- Colmsee, I.-S. O., Hank, P., & Bošnjak, M.
- Affiliations
- Universität Trier (DE)
- Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) (DE)
- Venue
- Zeitschrift für Psychologie
- Publisher
- Hogrefe Publishing Group
- Published
- 2021-01
- Volume
- 229
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 48-69
- ISSN
- 0044-3409 (ISSN-L)
- 2190-8370
- 2151-2604
- OpenAlex
- W3128031024
- Cited by
- 68
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 7.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Zeitschrift für Psychologie (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Keywords
- low self-esteem, eating disorders, risk factors, temporal stability, gender differences, eating disorder prevention, adolescents and young adults
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
